Treseder has his back to a Wall

Kel Treseder finished second in the opening round of the CIK Stars of Karting series in Newcastle on the weekend.

Bam

KARTING: Even the super-confident Kel Treseder was surprised at where he finished in the opening round of the CIK Stars of Karting Series in Newcastle at the weekend.

It took a seven-time Australian champion to steal top spot from the Bundaberg racer — and it was only by the barest of margins.

Karting veteran Matthew Wall was the deserving winner of both finals at the weekend, but a “rookie error” almost handed Treseder an unlikely victory in his first foray into the pro Gearbox Class races.

Exiting the final corner Wall slowed to begin his celebrations and came within millimetres of handing the win to Treseder on the line.

In the end, Wall crossed a mere 0.037sec ahead of Treseder.

“We came so close,” Treseder said.

“It hurts when you are within a centimetre of the win, but to be honest we are thrilled with how well the weekend went considering it was a whole new class of racing.”

Wall was relieved to take victory.

“I guess I’ve been watching too much Formula One over the years where they slow down to celebrate and I’m very lucky to have got away with it,” Wall said.

“This weekend has just been fantastic to see the CIK style of racing back on track in Australia and it has got a lot of people in the sport excited. I can’t wait to get to round two in Ipswich.”

Tests and trialling had been done before the first round, but Sunday’s finals were the first time Treseder had raced the new kart in competition.

“It was unbelievable; plenty of grunt and the front brakes make a difference,” he said.

He recorded the fastest lap during heats, but was always chasing Wall’s tail in the main event.

Six weeks separate round one and two, giving Treseder ample time to fine tune his new toy and discover some extra speed.

“We’ll tinker with it a bit and probably do some trips to Willowbank before the next round to test out the track again,” Treseder said.

“There’s no reason we can’t get quicker and give Wall a run for his money.”

The next round of the 2010 CIK Stars of Karting Series will be contested in Ipswich at Willowbank Raceway from May 5-7.